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Apparent horizontal and vertical extents of patterns with and without a surround
1School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|December 1, 1995
Summary
Removing margins around printed text reduces perceived size, especially for patterned areas. This visual perception effect may relate to the Delboeuf illusion.
Area of Science:
- Visual perception
- Psychophysics
- Cognitive psychology
Background:
- Printed text is typically viewed with surrounding margins.
- Previous observations suggested margins influence perceived text dimensions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of margin removal on the perceived size of printed text.
- To determine if this effect differs between patterned and unpatterned visual regions.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Compared perceived text extent with and without margins.
- Experiment 2: Used a horizontal-line grating to test patterned vs. unpatterned regions.
Main Results:
- Removing margins reduced perceived vertical and horizontal text extent.
- A similar vertical reduction was observed for patterned gratings, but not horizontal.
- Unpatterned regions showed less or no size reduction.
Conclusions:
- The presence of margins significantly impacts the perceived size of visual elements, particularly patterned ones.
- This phenomenon may be linked to size contrast effects, such as the Delboeuf illusion.